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EVENTS
CNNSI.com GROUP
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End of an era Saints halt streak of 34 years without a playoff win
Updated: Sunday December 31, 2000 7:22 PM
NEW ORLEANS (AP) -- The Saints' 34 years without a playoff victory was the longest in professional sports. The Chicago White Sox have not won a World Series since 1917, but have won several playoff games. The Chicago Cubs have failed to get into a World Series since 1945, but had postseason success as recently at 1998. The Dallas Mavericks have not won a playoff game in 13 years. In the NFL, the only other team without a playoff victory is the Baltimore Ravens, but the franchise is only four years old. The Ravens would have to go winless through 2029 to match the Saints' mark. In it's four previous playoff games, New Orleans was outscored 123-56, an average of 31-14.
View from the cheap seatsThe Saints needed two deadline extensions before their playoff game was finally sold out Friday morning. The city's apathy apparently extended to scalping as well. Most tickets were only selling for slightly more than face value until about an hour before the game. The price dropped drastically after that. Paul Mantagamus made the trip from St. Louis, said his sales had been sluggish all day, "Its like everyone's playing a waiting game. They're trying to wait as long as possible, and get the tickets cheap. I'll probably have to sell them for less than what I paid. Maybe people just don't like my Marshall Faulk jersey."
Mora is less for Saints fansFans in the Superdome, watching the Colts-Dolphins game on the stadium screens, erupted in cheers as Lamar Smith ran in the game winner. The reaction of ex-Saints coach, and current Colts coach Jim Mora drew even louder applause. The Colts are now 0-2 in the playoffs since Mora became their head coach. He was 0-4 with the Saints.
It must be the jerseysSaints coach Jim Haslett had his team wear its white jerseys for Saturday's game. They normally wear white on the road, where New Orleans was 7-1 this season, and black at home, where they are 3-5. Superstition had nothing to do with the change, though. Haslett said the black jerseys are looser, allowing opponents to find more to grab when trying to stop one of his players, so he opted for the closer fitting shirts.
Playoff win a spell breakerSome feel the Saints home-field problems can be traced to an ancient Indian burial ground on which the Superdome is rumored to have been built. After struggling on their home field this year, and in three previous playoff games in the dome in which they were outscored 107-50, help was called for. To try to shake off some of that bad mojo, the team brought in New Orleans voodoo priestess Ava Kay Jones and her group, "Voodoo Macumba." The group danced and chanted at midfield before the game, while Jones held aloft a live snake. Jones said it was "To once and for all rid the Dome of all curses, and put the ancestors to rest."
MVP playoff success doesn't extend to FaulkMarshall Faulk had more reason to expect to advance in the postseason than just facing a team that had never won a playoff game. Of the last seven MVPs, six have made it to at least their conference championship games. Five of the last seven MVPs have played in the Super Bowl. Before Faulk's early departure on Saturday, the only MVP whose team went out in the first round of the playoffs was Barry Sanders. His Detroit Lions team lost in the wild-card round following the 1997 season, when he shared the award with Green Bay's Brett Favre. The Packers made the Super Bowl twice during Favre's three-year run as MVP. They lost to Dallas in the NFC Championship game following the 1995 season, when Favre won his first MVP.
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